We cannot say when or where the first public concert was given in America. The first of which we have any record was advertised in the Boston 'Weekly News Letter' of December 16-23, 1731. It was 'a Concert of Music on sundry Instruments at Mr. Pelham's great Room, being the house of the late Doctor Noyes near the Sun Tavern.' Further than that we know nothing about it. We find notices of other concerts at intervals for several years, but nothing is said about the music played or the people who took part in them. In 1744 a concert was given at the historic Faneuil Hall, which had been built two years earlier and which was apparently the favorite place for such functions until about the year 1755, when it was supplanted by the newly erected Concert Hall in Queen Street.[26] Most of the concerts at Faneuil Hall were given for the benefit of the poor and were held, it would appear, only by express permission of the selectmen. In 1755 we first notice concerts given for the benefit of private individuals and presumably without the permission of the selectmen. One was given for John Rice, organist of Trinity Church, and several for Thomas Dipper, organist of King's Chapel. We know nothing about these concerts except that they consisted of 'select pieces by the best masters.' It is possible that there existed from about the year 1744 a musical organization of which a Mr. Stephen Deblois was treasurer and which gave frequent concerts. The minutes of the Boston selectmen meetings, as reprinted in the 'Boston Town Records,' contain an entry under date of Nov. 21, 1744, to the effect that 'Mr. William Sheafe and a number of gentlemen desire the Use of Faneuil Hall for a Concert of Musick ... the Benefit arising by the Tickets to be for the Use of the Poor of the Town....' On Dec. 12, it was reported that 'the Selectmen received of Mr. Stephen Deblois two hundred and five pounds five shillings old Tenor being collected by a Concert of Musick in Faneuil Hall for the Use of the Poor of the Town'--obviously the same concert for which permission was granted to 'Mr. William Sheafe and a number of gentlemen.' In September, 1754, Stephen Deblois purchased Concert Hall for two thousand pounds, with the result that concerts immediately shifted there from Faneuil Hall. Thomas Dipper, for whom so many benefits were given, apparently had a hand in the organization, if there was one. We find an announcement in January, 1761, that 'Mr. Dipper's Public Concert will begin on Tuesday the 20th instant.' This suggests that there may have been also a series of private concerts for subscribers, as the term 'public' concert was very unusual in Colonial times. We read in the Boston 'News Letter' of April 29, 1762: 'The members of the Concert, usually performed at Concert Hall, are hereby notified that the same is deferred to the end of the Summer months. And it is desired that in the meantime each member would settle